Mormon Polygamy: A History

In this, the first comprehensive survey of Mormon polygamy—from nineteenth-century Ohio to twentieth-century Utah—Richard S. Van Wagoner details with precision and detachment the tumultuous reaction among Mormons and non-Mormons to plural marriage. Drawing heavily on first-hand accounts and recent scholarly research, the author carefully outlines the philosophical underpinnings of the practice, the institutional administration of policies regulating polygamy, the opposition from within and without the church, and the personal trauma often associated with plural marriage.

What emerges is a portrait of polygamy that neither discounts nor exaggerates the historical evidence but presents it as sympathetically as possible in the context of the times. Van Wagoner offers neither condemnation nor apologetics. All relevant contemporary accounts are examined and interpreted , and no period of Mormon history emphasized over another. Even present-day polygamous splinter groups are examined. The result is a systematic view unavailable in studies of isolated periods or repetitions of folklore which disguised the ubiquitous and fascinating story of polygamy as it is really was.